1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to telecommunications and more particularly to an ATM node, such as a hub, that includes local error correcting procedures.
2. Background Information
The need for improving the integrity of the data being transmitted through large networks has continuously increased, particularly with the development of international business and other activities dealing with sensitive information.
Such concerns obviously applies to the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (A.T.M.) networks which allow transmission of data of different nature via high speed networks.
FIG. 1 illustrates an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (A.T.M.) backbone 1 which topology is comprised, for clarity sake, of hubs 10–50 which are interconnected by means of a set of full duplex opticals links 15, 16, 25, 35 and 45. The ATM networks provides with the possibility to transfer data through the format of cells based on 53 bytes, the cells being concatenated in messages as represented in FIG. 1. Assuming for instance that such a message is received by hub 10 and that this message is transferred through the network via hubs 20, 40 and 50. Considering now that an error might occur in the transmission path. In this case, the Data Terminating Equipment (DTE) (not represented) which receives the message from the backbone via hub 50 (for instance) detects the occurrence of the error via its own Error Correcting Code (E.C.C.) mechanisms. This detection normally results in the latter discarding the full message being received, what compels the emitting DTE to send back the whole message, that is to say the full number of cells composing the message being lost in the network. It should be noticed that, should the error only affect a single cell, the full message that includes that cell is being lost, what inevitably affects the overall performance and efficiency of the system.